IF YOU HAVE EVERYTHING LAID OUT, YOU MAY BE SO RIGID THAT GOD'S GRACE BOUNCES OFF YOU
[adapted from The God of Miracles]
Do you have everything laid out? Are you too set
in your ways? Have you decided that you know
everything you need to know about what
you need?
When you're rigid, you create a shell and grace bounces
off it.
Think of how many ways you may be restricting
yourself by being too stiff.
Sometimes this is the sole reason for prayers that go
unanswered:
God wants you to stop yearning so earnestly and to let things unfold in His timing. What you desire may be in His plan for you, but He may be waiting for you to stop obsessing over it.
Nothing inhibits the miraculous more than trying to entirely control a situation.
The solution, after sufficient prayer, is to let go and put it into God’s Hands. That’s easier said than done, but when we step back and let God direct our lives – when we stop striving, in the belief that we must be in control -- it's miraculous how life can unfold and how peaceful it becomes.
He also wants you to transcend every negative thought. Let things -- aggravations, temptations to anger, anxieties -- pass like water beneath you. Try hard, yes; but not obsessively. Nor look for worldly perfection (instead, spiritual purity).
Man the bridge. Let dark things pass. Make sure they remain (passing away) beneath you.
Do not seek what others have. God gives everyone equal gifts. Often we look around and think everyone has more gifts, more “talent,” more possessions, than we do, but in fact if we have the simple gift of making someone happy, if we can love with all our hearts, if we have patience, we have the greatest gifts of all.
While the person who is a famous actor or writer or a leader seems to have it all, seems to be loaded with gifts, the opposite may be true. You may have much more. You may be a receptionist, gifted with the ability to smile. Do we realize how important that is?
A "simple" smile may turn around a person's entire day -- and lead to a chain reaction. To make someone happy is a great gift and more than the vast majority of famous "gifted" people can claim.
Are you good at taking care of kids? This is extremely important to God. He likes nothing more. Do you have the gift of housework (done without complaint)?
God loves the hidden and simple and if he has kept you that way, this too is a gift. A balanced person is a tranquil person and tranquility is a miracle.